Background
    During the summer of 1997, a two week program called the Microgravity Summer Institute, was conducted at Rensselaer.  Approximately two dozen local primary and secondary school teachers attended space-related presentations for the first week and in groups, applied this material to develop lesson plans for classroom use during the second week.
    As part of this program, one of the teacher groups decided to construct a drop tower, which is a device that gives a controlled way of working with the phenomena of free-fall, where gravity is not "experienced".  This drop tower produces about 0.6 seconds of free fall, during which an experiment can be performed and recorded using the on-board video camera.  The video tape is then played back to study what happened in more detail.
    The idea for the drop tower was derived  from similar hardware available through NASA's Lewis Research Center. A description of this setup is available in The Microgravity Demonstrator, (see resources listed below).  The NASA version all stores into the trunk shown to the right (including the TV/VCR) and is very portable.  The down-side of this otherwise excellent equipment is that it has very limited availability to most teachers. It's cost is estimated at $5000, making it prohibitively expensive for most educators.
    Our drop tower attempts to pick up where the NASA Microgravity Demonstrator, leaves off, by providing an inexpensive yet portable apparatus.  Accounting for the fact that most schools have their own television and VCR, costs can be limited to between $300 and $600 (for parts), depending on the choice of the video camera.
 

Operating the Drop Tower
    The process of setting up the drop tower takes between 5 and 10 minutes, depending on experience.  We recommend gathering all that you will need before starting.  This is usually easy since most of the equipment will be stored in the trunk.  You must provide your own TV and VCR however.  Locate some free floor space with adequate ceiling height (7-8 feet).  Next, follow the below list to assemble the tower.
 
 

  Once assembled, the tower is operated by placing an experiment module "palette" in the slot in the drop box.  Pull the cord to raise the drop box to the top, start recording the VCR and let go of the rope!  After it lands, stop the recording and play it back to inspect your experiment!
 

Checklist describing the items that are included in the trunk for loan out to local teachers.
 

Curriculum Ideas
    Many ideas have been suggested for how the drop tower can be integrated into a classroom environment.  The tower can be used for demonstrations, and under proper supervision, students themselves can propose, design, build, and operate their own experiments to provide a more thorough understanding of scientific principles and the "scientific method" itself.  Experiments can be built to fit on a piece of plywood, foam core or even cardboard which slides easily into place in front of the camera.

Access
    The drop tower that was constructed as a part of the Microgravity Summer Institute is available for Capital District (NY) teachers to borrow for use in their own classrooms through the Greater Capitol Region Teacher Center .  Priority will be given to Microgravity Summer Institute participants.
    Teachers borrowing the drop tower will need to provide their own television and VCR.  Ideally, the VCR should have a good slow-motion playback capability (Shuttle-control).

Resources
     We would be glad to give you any advice you may need to build your own drop tower.  For starters, here is a list of resources that can get you off on the right foot.

IDGE Visitors Center Map